impOSCar2

Wow. When I read the review for this thing, I thought, "No way this 4-year old soft synth could be that good!" Oh, how I was wrong. Never before I received such joy just from playing a synth. I don't even need to put it in a song. Just open it up, and rock some chords on this thing, and before I know it, I am smiling like a baby. It is absolutely breathtaking. It can do everything, although I find it best for keys and pads, rather than basses. It can do good basses, but its abilities are somewhat wasted. Like driving a Ferari to the grocery store.

UI:
It can be a little confusing at first, but you wouldn't believe how well the manual clears it up. Without the manual, I would probably give it a 6.

Sound:
I can't even do it justice with words. Just try the demo, and then when it starts making horrendous, disturbing noises (the copy protection on the demo slowly increases the noise level in the background until it becomes deafening), but it. Best beal on the planet.

Features:
It's not Absynth or Massive, but I am not going to dock any points for not cramming it full of features. It has what it needs, and uses it all well. The filters are... geez, I'm speechless just thinking about it.

Documentation:
As mentioned before, the manual clears up any questions you may have about the UI, so I give it a 10.

Presets:
I am not much of a preset user, but it does come with a lot, and they show off its extreme might very well. Also, in the newest update (not in the demo) there is a much better preset browser built into it, so that is very nice.

Customer Support:
I am giving a 10 for the addition of the preset browser. It was something that obviously a lot of people wanted, so the updated the synth to have one. Plus, they seem to be owned by M-Audio now, so you can't go wrong there (I think).

Value For Money:
If there was an infinity symbol available instead of a 10, I would give it infinity. If you buy one synth, buy this one.

Stability:
Has not crashed yet. I did have some weird issues running multiple instances, but as far as I can tell, I fixed that when I updated to the latest version.Read Review